On behalf of ChemCo Systems, we hope that your summer is off to a great start!
We are hearing a number of sad stories from concrete repair contractors across North America. They are telling us that getting epoxy and other concrete adhesives, restoration and repair materials on a timely basis has been a frustrating challenge especially this year.
Why are manufacturers and distributors keeping such small inventories? What is taking so long to fill back orders?
The answer is that the construction chemical business (which includes epoxy adhesives, bonders, grouts and coatings for concrete repair, maintenance and restoration) is notorious for being impossible to forecast. So the manufacturers of the finished polymer based products don’t know how much raw material to inventory especially since the economy has been in the doldrums for so long. Nor can the manufacturers can’t rely on previous year’s results to help with estimating their needs. Another issue has been that the raw material producers have reduced their inventories and discontinued some very useful specialty additives that are hard to replace in formulations (with little or no notice). Finally, because pricing battles between major brand names for the few large orders have reduced profit margins, the corporate bosses have mandated lower inventory levels.
The net result is that even popular epoxy concrete restoration products are frequently out of stock and sometimes unavailable for a month or longer.
One contractor recently needed to precisely schedule delivery of materials because his customer was setting a narrow time window for a manufacturing shutdown for a concrete resoration project to repair surfaces in some material storage bins. So he contacted the specified product’s manufacturer a month in advance to place his order for two epoxy repair bonders. With less than a week to go, he recontacted the manufacturer to learn that his material had not been made and would not be available for another month. At the last minute, he called ChemCo to see if we could help.
We were able to schedule, package and ship his order in 2 days.
We can act fast because we don’t report to any big bosses. And in the last year we have increased our raw material inventory levels so we can respond to contractors in last minute panic situations including Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Please give us a call any time you need epoxies for concrete repair in a hurry. You won't be disappointed!